The New Path
by Macurial
Summary: After getting passed over by the Jedi Council, Anikan gets an interesting offer.


Chapter 1

Ani sat with his back against a wall, playing a game of "catch" with himself. He threw the ball against the wall opposite and concentrated with all his might to stop it in mid-air. Using his mind, he could see it happening, the balls rotation slowing down further and further until it was spinning on its axis in slow, quiet rotation right in front of his nose.

Though Obi-Wan Kenobi (now Jedi Knight Kenobi) was a good fifty yards down the corridor, Ani could hear speaking.

"The boy is as promising as any we've ever seen." He said.

"Then why won't you train him." replied his companion.

"He's too old to begin…"

"But surely, if he shows so much promise, the rules could be bent. The Jedi have done it before." His companion observed.

Ani could distract himself with the ball no longer, he had to look. The man to whom Obi- Wan spoke was wearing some sort of formal dress, such as a military person might wear for special occasions. He had grey pants, a blue jacket with a high and tight collar, and a yellow belt that both went around his waist as well as slung across his right shoulder like a sash. The man had the lightest blonde hair Ani had ever seen, shades lighter than Master Obi-Wan's. He kept his hands folded behind his back in a relaxed but secure lock.

Ani could hear Obi-Wan sigh. "To be completely forthcoming Lieutenant, we had some other reservations as well."

The Lieutenant seemed to have expected this. "Master Yoda wouldn't have contacted me if you hadn't. What were these reservations?"

"We sensed in him a lot of… fear, the beginnings of anger, and the possibility for them to manifest into something... worse."

The Lieutenant's gaze lowered to the floor, his brow furrowed in contemplation. After a moment he replied. "Why does the possibility of anger worry the council so much, that they'd completely forgo training all together?"

Obi-Wan looked Ani's way with a sad, caring smile . "He could end up being the most powerful Jedi we've ever seen…"

"Or?" The Lieutenant instinctively inquired.

"Or, he could be our very worst enemy. If there were somebody as powerful as he could be, that was trained by us, and knew all of our weaknesses…"

"Too great a risk." The lieutenant surmised.

"Yes." Agreed Kanobi.

Their conversation continued, but Ani was lost in thought. He kept hearing those words in his head.

"_He could end up being the most powerful Jedi we've ever seen…" _

He imagined flying along the roofs of trains, jumping from carriage to another with ease. He could see himself stopping laser blasts with a halt of his hand, outrunning starships, battling lords of the dark side. But then he would hear Obi-Wan's voice in the back of his mind:

"_He could end up being our very worst enemy."_

Those words on the other hand, brought only one image to forefront his mind: A pair of evil, angry, and unrelenting red eyes.

He was beginning to feel anxious. Ani couldn't remember having so little to do in his entire life. For the past week, the adults had hurried him from one destination after another, only to get there, sit down, and wait for hours on end. He had been called by the Jedi Council, Queen Amidala, and a senator from Naboo who he couldn't even remember the name of. And every time they would get early, and sit, and wait, only getting up when they were finally called by whoever it was that wanted to see them.

Adults, it seemed to him, ran around in a great hurry, only to sit for long periods of time whenever they got to where they were going. And what did they do as they sat? Read news reports, watch clouds go by, or just stare off into space. It was infuriating. He was sure he could have taken apart and put back together 3P0 a dozen times in time they wasted just sitting around.

As a slave, Ani couldn't remember a minute ever passing when he didn't have some sort of work to do. And when he got home, he would usually work on his pod, tinker with 3PO, or do some sort of cleaning around the house. And yet here he was, seven days gone by without a single thing to fix, build, or clean. He tried to think of the last time he ever went even just a day without working on something, and for the life of him he couldn't. He itched for something to do with his hands.

"Anakin." Obi-Wan called, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Would you come here for a second?"

Ani sat up, taking a second to stretch his legs and put the ball in his pocket. He walked slowly towards the two men who had discusd his fate just seconds before. _Dang, I shouldn't have dozed off._

As he got closer he could start to make out the details of the lieutenants face. His yellow-white hair was receding, and thinning, and his forehead had canyon deep worry lines jetting across it. He was several inches taller than Obi-Wan, and with his strait posture and long jacket, he seemed to Ani, gigantic.

Ani was now just a step away from the two men, and the lieutenant extended out his hand in greeting. He could feel the coarseness of the lieutenant's skin as they shook. He squeezed the man's fingers, feeling marble like knuckles, hardened and swollen after many breaks and dislocations. He looked down to the hand that completely enveloped his. Scars like shooting stars ran all across them. He realized that he was shaking hands with a soldier- a winner of many battles, and Ani couldn't help but feel insignificant.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan began, "This is Captain Jais-tuun, an officer in the Coruscant Security Force."

"Hello." Anakin said quietly.

"Hello Anakin." Said Captain Jais-Tuun, turning to Obi Wan. "Jedi Knight Kanobi, would you mind giving Anakin and I a minute to between ourselves?"

A look of surprise crossed Obi Wans face, but he quickly recovered. "Not at all Lieutenant. I shall be just down the hall." And with a quick smile towards Anakin, he tucked his arms in his cloak and walked away.

When they were alone, the captain gestured towards a hallway bench a few meters away. They walked towards it in silence. Facing each other, they both paused for a second to gather their thoughts, then sat down in unison. The lieutenant then did the last thing Anakin had expected of him. He smiled.

"Anakin I must say, I don't know what to make of you."

He saw Anakin's shoulders slump, taking his offhand comment as negative_. He still has that slave mentality. He either thinks little of himself, or thinks others do. _

Clearing his mind, the lieutenant continued."Are you the savior, the villain, or are you just a slave boy who's been caught in the wake of war?"

"I don't know sir." Ani mumbled.

"It was a rhetorical question son, one you're not supposed to answer, but yes. I don't believe you have any idea at all who you are yet. Which is great, because neither do we." He said matter of factually.

Anakin face gave a skeptical scrunch. He couldn't remember an adult ever openly admitting that they didn't have the answer to a problem. He'd never even considered it a possibility.

"Anakin, do you know what fate is?" the lieutenant asked.

Anakin contemplated this, thinking how best to describe it. "It's what's going to happen."

"Yes, to broaden, its believing that there is a future that is going to happen no matter what. Personally, I find the idea ludicrous, and even worse than ludicrous, boring. That everything is decided before it happens, what would be the point in trying? But let's assume that there is such a thing as destiny, that you are a savior, someone to bring the world to order. Does it really matter what path takes you there as long as you arrive?"

Anakin couldn't look away from the man with the caved in face and bright yellow hair. He just wanted him to continue speaking. And the man did.

"I know you want to be a Jedi Anakin. I know you want to save the universe, but if you are meant to be the savior, if you are meant to save us all, it really doesn't matter if the Jedi accept you or not, does it?"

Anakin nodded, he hadn't thought of it in that way.

"Officially Anakin, we have a trillion people on this planet, _a trillion._ Do you realize how many people that is? If you wanted to count to a trillion starting now, and kept on counting without taking a breath until you got there, it would take you, roughly, about Five hundred thousand years to do so. Now, we know that with illegals here and off-worlders, not to mention forms of life we don't closely monitor, our population is actually closer to three trillion."

"I can't even imagine that many people…" Anikan said, not meaning to aloud.

"Neither can I. None of us can grasp it, not really anyway, it's just a number. And here's another number for you. We find that for every thousand people we need about two to three officers to keep order. In the end, we would need roughly eight billion police officers to keep the planet orderly, and safe."

"Eight billion officers." Anakin said, trying to imagine it.

"Yes, there are many planets that don't even have that many people on them."

"Where do you even get that many people?" Ani said.

"We recruit them. We receive billions of applications a year, picking about six hundred million of the best to come to the academies, about half of which graduate and go on to all different sorts of careers. This is why I am here Anakin, talking to you."

The man took Anakin's hand firmly, and when he looked at him, Anikan could see a great weight behind his eyes. "I don't know if you are meant to save the galaxy Anakin, but I can offer you this: Join us. Become an officer, and I will train you to save a person, and more importantly, I'll train you to learn to deal with it when you can't. Maybe someday you'll save a whole family, a whole street, a neighborhood, a whole sector. Maybe you aren't meant to save the galaxy Anakin, but you can save lives. And… if you are to save the galaxy, you will already be here at the heart of civilization, you will be strong, and I swear, you will be ready."


End file.
